The Crime at the Fed

https://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2015/05/the-crime-at-the-fed

The Department of Justice is conducting a criminal investigation into leaks of information from a September 2012 meeting of the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee, the group that guides America's monetary policy, according to a report in the New York Times.

In a May 4, 2015 letter to Jeb Hensarling, the chairman of the House financial services committee, and to Sean Duffy, the chairman of its subcommittee on oversight and investigations, the chair of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, advised that she and her colleagues "take seriously our commitment to maintain the confidentiality of our deliberations and planning. We recognize, in particular, the importance of safeguarding confidential information that could advantage individuals who obtain access to it."

Maybe I am missing something here, but wouldn't one way to solve this confidentiality problem be to just make the FOMC meetings public? Put them on C-Span or CNBC, rather than releasing the detailed minutes years later or a summary press release shortly afterward. I mean, it's not as if they're discussing plans for the invasion of Normandy. Or at least, it shouldn't be. The more dramatic the monetary policy, the more valuable advance news of it is, and the greater the temptation to corruption.

by Editor | May 5, 2015 at 1:16 pmRelated Topics:Federal Reservereceive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list

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